Patent Application
20060202417
The present invention relates generally to games. In particular, the present invention relates to games for the purpose of teaching fundamental aspects of network marketing.
Network marketing, or sometimes called “multi-level marketing,” has been phenomenally successful for many entrepreneurs over the last 20-30 years. Network marketing involves individuals or small teams approaching prospects with the goal of getting those prospects to join their “team” as associates or participate as customers (“prospecting”); personal development allowing the individuals or small teams the opportunity to develop personal and business skills to grow a successful business; assisting and empowering associates in the individual's or small team's lineal organizational tree in order to recruit more associates and customers (“downline development”); and teaching the ability to overcome challenges or obstacles.
Unlike traditional employment where an employee is typically paid a “linear income,” that is “trading hours for income,” network marketing income is the total of entrepreneurial income generated both by personal sales of the individual's or small team's networking organization's products or services, as well as the revenue generated by the lineal team (downline associates) through its efforts in sales and recruiting new associates. Thus, it is possible that a network marketing professional can stop selling the organization's services and products and still receive entrepreneurial income from downstream associates' efforts. For successful network marketing entrepreneurs, this entrepreneurial income can be tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (or more).
In many cases, individuals are attracted to network marketing while they continue their regular employment (their “day job”) in the attempt to make more money for the payment of large expenditures, (e.g., college tuition, boats, family vacations, a more comfortable retirement). Some individuals are so successful in network marketing that the generated entrepreneurial income far exceeds the individual's income at his/her regular place of employment. At such time that entrepreneurial income meets and exceeds an individual's expenses, an individual will often leave his/her regular employment as network marketing offers much freedom from the trappings of regular employment, namely, the ability to set one's own hours, working from home, and working as much or as little as needed to secure the income the individual desires. Because of network marketing's inherent flexibility, network marketing is also particularly attractive for homemakers and retirees. One does not need an income source to begin network marketing (presuming that one's expenses are met by savings or another income producer in the family).
This heightened popularity of network marketing and the opportunity for financial success have resulted in many individuals joining various network marketing organizations. However, such individuals require a basic understanding of principles of network marketing. One way to accomplish this is through training that is both educational and entertaining, namely, through playing a board game. Although many board games are known for teaching general principles related to financial matters, (e.g., Kiyosaki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,878, granted Oct. 27, 1998, and entitled “Apparatus and Method of Playing a Board Game for Teaching Fundamental Aspects of Personal Finance, Investing and Accounting;” Kiyosaki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,957, granted Mar. 7, 2000, and entitled “Board Game for Teaching Fundamental Aspects of Personal Finance, Investing and Accounting;” Kiyosaki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,300, granted Aug. 22, 2000, and entitled “Game for Teaching Fundamental Aspects of Personal Finance, Investing and Accounting to Children;” Campbell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,135, granted Dec. 10, 1991, and entitled “Board Game Apparatus for the Teaching of Financial Management Principles;” and Kim, U.S. Pat. No. 6,769,691, granted Aug. 3, 2004, and entitled “Apparatus for Financial Investment Education and Entertainment”), none are known that teach basic principles of network marketing.
The present invention is directed to a method of playing a network marketing game for entertainment and for building a better understanding of key principles related to network marketing, namely, prospecting, personal development, downline development, and overcoming inevitable challenges, all while on the path of increasing entrepreneurial income as a means of increasing net income, and ergo total monetary accumulation, to achieve a predefined destination goal or dream.
The game is played between two or more players or teams in which each player or team is assigned a job with a pre-assigned initial entrepreneurial income, job income, expenses, and intial net income. Each player or team is also assigned or chooses a destination goal having a price that is significantly greater than the player's or team's assigned net income. In this way, each player or team will need to better grasp the fundamental principles of prospecting (attracting prospects that can develop into associates or customers), personal development (improvement of skills, knowledge, talent, and abilities to attain personal development or “PD” points), downline development (motivate, educate, and empower your team of associates to obtain new customers and recruit new associates), all the while overcoming challenges that can have negative ramifications (e.g., loss of prospects, customers, associates, PD points, or a turn).
Each player or team chooses a playing piece in which to move about a game board having substantially consecutive networking tiles. The networking tiles correspond to prospecting cards, personal development cards, downline development cards, and challenge cards, all of which include an aspect of the networking principles that the game intends to impart to the players. Taking turns, each player or team uses a random move indicator, such as a die or dice, to move about the game board. Upon landing on a tile, the player or team reads a card corresponding to the tile and accounts for it on the player's or team's networking worksheet.
The game is played until one player or team has accumulated sufficient total monetary accumulation (i.e., sum of money) to be able to achieve the player's or team's destination goal or some pre-determined dollar amount (e.g., $1,000,000 of entrepreneurial income).
Variations to the game are encompassed by the invention and may include varying levels of competency as the players/teams become more skilled in network marketing. The levels may be set by a minimum attained entrepreneurial income. Once the entrepreneurial income of one level is attained for a particular player or team, the game may provide that the player or team cannot drop below that attained level. Upon reaching the highest level, the calculation factor for entrepreneurial income increases, e.g., by a factor of 10, representing that the player or team has successfully mastered creating a team of downstream associates and customers that magnifies the income of the (upline) player or team. At this rate, the entrepreneurial income far exceeds the original job income and the net income (entrepreneurial income plus job income, less expenses) grows and the destination goal is within easy reach.
At the highest level, the personal development tiles may be converted to destination tiles that correlate to a plurality of destination cards. When the player or team lands on a destination tile and draws its own destination goal, and has sufficient net income to pay for the cost of the destination goal, that player or team is declared the winner. In a variation of the game, each time a player or team lands on and receives another's destination goal, the player or team drawing the card has its own destination goal cost cut in half.
Payday tiles may be interspersed among the networking tiles and each time a player or team passes or lands on a payday tile, the player or team is given either its net income or, alternatively, its job income.
These and other variations and advantages will be discussed and will become more apparent upon review of the drawings, the Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention, and the Claims.
Like reference numerals are used to designate like parts throughout the several views of the drawings, wherein:
The present invention is directed to a game that teaches fundamental principles of network marketing. The game teaches players network marketing principles generally related to prospecting, personal development, downline development, and the challenges that come from those principles, all while amassing sufficient money (or total monetary accumulation) to attain a pre-set goal or dream. The game presumes that the players start out with a “day job,” which the players may choose to keep or abandon in the pursuit of amassing the money that will allow the player to realize its pre-set goal or dream.
Referring to
The particular layout of the tiles is not as critical of an aspect of the invention. There are numerous ways to lay out the networking tiles. In addition to the layout in
The marketing principle card categories include prospecting 32, personal development 34, downline development 36, and also include the inevitable challenges 38. Each of these marketing principle card categories correspond to networking tiles 26 on board 14. For example, the prospecting cards 32 correspond to prospecting tiles 40, personal development cards 34 correspond to personal development tiles 42, downline development cards 36 correspond to downline development tiles 44, and challenge cards 38 correspond to challenge tiles 46.
Referring now to
In one example, the assignment of a profession or job is accomplished through the random dealing of job cards 48, one job card per player or team. The job cards can vary in terms of professions 50, income 52, expenses 54, and (initial) net income 56. Examples of assigned professions include doctor (
Referring now to
The game will be made more exciting by having a sufficiently large number of destination cards. A larger number of destination cards with different goals will necessarily reduce the odds of a player landing on a destination card tile and selecting the card that corresponds to its pre-assigned destination goal (and will be discussed further below). In one example, there are 10-20 destination cards. Although the destinations cards are illustrated as being unique, and according to one feature of the game where each player/team has a unique destination, the invention encompasses the example where there are few variations of the destination card or all of the destination cards are the same (that is every player/team is attempting to achieve the same goal). Also, the invention encompasses the example where all destination card goals are priced at the same dollar level, as opposed to varying destination goal costs.
The destination cards have significant dollar costs over that of the net income assigned to each player/team, e.g., the destination goal cost may be 1000+times the cost of the net income. However, the game playing period could be shortened by decreasing the destination goal/income ratio by a factor of 10 or 100 or, conversely, lengthened for serious play by increasing the destination goal/income ratio by a factor of 10 or 100.
Each player/team is given a networking worksheet 60, such as that illustrated in
These numbers may be written down in respective columns on the networking worksheet 60. The columns (rows or spaces) include a column for listing the number of acquired personal development (or “PD”) points 62, a column for listing number of acquired prospects 64, a column for listing the number of acquired number of customers 66, a column for listing the number of acquired associates 68, a column for entrepreneurial income 70 (e.g., initially the entrepreneurial income 58 assigned from job card 48), a column for job income 72 (the job income 52 assigned from job card 48), a column for expenses 74 (e.g., the expenses 54 assigned from job card 48), and a column for net income 76 (initially the net income 56 assigned from job card 48 and will vary as the game is played).
Each team/player may be given a pre-assigned amount of prospects 61 (attained through approaching individuals, showing them the value of becoming a customer or associate, with the goal of enrolling them into the organization) and PD points 63 (points assigned in the game to reflect the acquisition of discipline, motivation, knowledge, and talents in order to run an effective business). The number of PD points 63 and prospects 61 directly impact the number of customers 65 and associates 67 (discussed further below). In one example, each player/team is initially given 100 prospects and 10 PD points that would be assigned to columns 62 and 64, respectively. The 100 prospects represent the typical list of people created by good network marketers when they start their business. The 10 PD points represent existing skills, knowledge, and talents that each player/team initially offers to its business.
Because there is a correlation between the number of prospects in connection with PD points that results in attaining associates and customers (depending on the prospecting cards, such as illustrated in
The downline development cards 36 are illustrative of sales techniques that the participant (player/team) can teach its team (its associates) to generate entrepreneurial income for each associate, as well as the upline participant (or just upline). For example the downline development card illustrated in
Typical of real life, and particularly of network marketing, challenges are ever present that cause slight or significant setbacks in attaining the desired goal but often allow the participant to reevaluate and attempt to move forward. The challenge cards 38 illustrated in
Referring again to
The game is played by each player/team taking turns using means 18 to move its marker about the tiles. The means can be any random indicator that corresponds to a number, number of tiles, or color, or shape or object (or combination thereof) on the board tiles. In one example, a die or multiple dice (as illustrated) may be used. Alternatively, a spinner, or color or shape-coded die, block, or polygonal shape may be used. The players may accord a number or color or shape as paramount for determining which player or team would go first by throwing a die/dice or spinning on a number or color, or rolling such a color (or closest thereto). Once that is decided, the first player/team rolls the die/dice or other random indicator and moves the playing piece forward the number of spaces indicated on the die/dice or to the corresponding color or shape. As each tile is preferably associated with a networking card (prospecting, professional development, downline development, challenge) or “payday” 77 (in which the player/team is given its net income 56 of entrepreneurial income 58 plus job income 52 less expenses 54), the player/team either picks up the card corresponding to the tile it landed on or receives its net income for landing on or passing payday 77. If the player/team lands on a networking card, the player/team picks up the top card off the corresponding stack, reads the learning statement attached to the card, and is either assigned the benefit or allowed to obtain the benefit of a condition if met (e.g., x number of PD points needed to obtain new associates), or lose a benefit from a challenge card. The gain or loss or receipt of net income is transferred to the player's/team's networking worksheet 60.
Once the player lands on a particular tile, the player/team picks up the category card 24 that corresponds to the tile that the player/team has landed on. For example, if the player/team lands on a prospecting tile, the player/team picks up and reads the top prospecting card in the stack on the board, or if on a personal development tile, the player/team picks up and reads the top personal development card of the stack on the board. The player/team reads the card and follows the instructions on the card and transfers the data to its networking worksheet 60.
According to one aspect of the invention, entrepreneurial income is calculated by multiplying by 50 the sum of the number of associates that player/team has accumulated plus ½ the number of customers. The networking sheet 60 may add a column 78 to calculate ½ of the number of customers 65 (from column 66) adjacent the number of associates 67 (from column 68) to more easily calculate the changing entrepreneurial income 58 (from column 70). The calculation formula 80 may be printed onto the networking worksheet 60. In play, each player or team may round up to the nearest integer during calculating in order to avoid the complexity of dealing with fractions. Alternatively, the game may be played where round-ups are to the nearest multiples of 5 or 10. As stated above, the sum of the entrepreneurial income and job income, less expenses, equals net income. Net income will vary—nearly on every roll of the die or dice.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, with increased net income, the player or team may progress through varying levels (pin levels) 81 that are tied to consecutively higher entrepreneurial income. In one example there are 10 levels in which the player or team progresses. The 10th (highest level) is the destination level, at which the second or destination phase of play begins. According to one aspect, once a player or team reaches a particular level, it cannot drop below that level.
Once a player or team has reached its destination level, the calculation of entrepreneurial income is increased by a factor of 10 (e.g., multiplying by 500 the sum of the number of associates plus ½ of the number of customers as enumerated at 82 in
According to one variation, all personal development tiles 26 are converted to destination tiles 28′ (such as better illustrated in
According to another aspect of the game, upon reaching upper levels, e.g., level 7 or above, the player or team can opt to play with two dice, as opposed the single die. This new benefit can be valuable on cards to which the number of prospects, associates, or customers are dependent on the roll of the die (or dice if at a certain high level). The ability to choose between one or two dice may also be beneficial if a player/team is trying to reach a payday tile for the distribution of net income or attempting to skip over a challenge tile.
According to yet another aspect, the player or team can choose to quit its “day job” and rely solely on its entrepreneurial income, as can happen with highly successful network marketing professionals in real life. In this variation, and at attaining an upper level, (e.g., a level 9 or 10), the player or team can opt to play with one, two, or three dice (with benefits of a third die when drawing cards that have networking benefits tied to a roll of the die or dice based on the attained level or passing a payday tile more frequently or being able to better gauge skipping an undesirable tile). This aspect of a player/team quitting its “day job” can be incorporated as a variation in the immediately preceding paragraph in order for the player/team to have the option to play with one or two dice at the upper levels.
The invention encompasses the game being incorporated into electronic or Web-based form where the game board is part of the digital display screen. In this interactive version, the other player or team may be a computer.
Advantages of the present invention include making the principles of network marketing entertaining, educational, and interactive. The illustrated embodiments are only examples of the present invention and, therefore, are non-limitive. It is to be understood that many changes in the particular structure, materials, and features of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is the Applicant's intention that its patent rights not be limited by the particular embodiments illustrated and described herein, but rather by the following claims interpreted according to accepted doctrines of claim interpretation, including the Doctrine of Equivalents and Reversal of Parts.
